humesd

How about a thread that provides actual, real world valuation for miles? We'd need three numbers: Cash price for the ticket booked, subjective cash value for the ticket booked if you upgraded and would not have upgraded with cash, and a cash estimate of the hassle factor to deduct from the savings. If you genuinely enjoy booking award tickets, don't include this. I'll go first:

SAN-DTW coach one way
AA 12500 + $5
Cash price $165
Hassle factor $0 (took under 15 mins to find and book acceptable flight)
Savings $160
Value per mile $0.13

Here is a format for a more complicated one (not a real one):
LAX-HKG First AA
AA 120,000 + $5
Cash Price $10,000
Subjective Price (most I'd pay for same flight in first) $2500
Hassle factor $300 (took 2 hours to find and book, plus did not get the best schedule compared to a reasonable cash booking)
AA Value Objective $10,000 - $305 /120000AA = $0.08 per AA
AA Value Subjective $2500 -$ 305/120000AA = $0.018 per AA

If you all like this idea, I'll organize the data. Of course no need to do this with SWA.

mia

I'm pretty sure you mean $0.013.

If only it were so simple. When you purchase a revenue ticket you buy not only air transportation, but also a discount on future travel. You did not redeem only 12,500 miles, but also the miles you would have earned on the paid ticket. These might include:

• Distance miles
• Elite status bonus
• Class of service bonus
• Miles for spending $165 on credit card
• Category bonus miles for buying airfare
• Etc

mia

In my case:

Distance: 1,955 miles (approximately)
Elite: 1,955 (Platinum)
Class: 0 (Economy, I assume based on price)
Spend: 165
Bonus: 330 (American Express Premier Rewards Gold)
Total: 4,405

12,500 + 4,405 = 16,905 miles

$160 / 16,905 = $0.0095 redemption value per mile

RustyC

Just did another almost-annual September booking for Alaska. 25K DL to go ATL-ANC (2 days)-FAI (3 days)-ATL. They'd probably want $500-600 these days even without the stopover factored in. The hassle factor goes up quite a bit when you try to maximize stopovers or open jaws, but OTOH this time it was necessary to make it all work out.

I liked last year's: ATL-PDX (stop)-JNU (stop)-ATL.

Some of the Canada routes also are likely a good value because of being otherwise overpriced or underserved, but the last time I was there the CAD was around 65 cents, so it'd probably seem expensive today.

mahasamatman

Every one of my award bookings is priceless, so value would be infinite.

humesd

I agree there are a lot of adjustments you have to make for sure. I guess it is better to say that my flight cost me 14,500 miles if you include the loss of 2000 flight miles. (Actually I booked for someone else who doesn't have a FF account, so I didn't lose 2000 miles there.)

For a lot of us, MQM have zero value since we'll never revenue fly that much on one airline in one year. And even if we do, we'd have to fly again on it to get the benefit. But for a tiny minority, status is easily worth several thousand.

Another adjustment is that miles are tax free, but pleasure travel has to be paid with after tax money.

As a general formula though, I think just posting the info in my example format will yield more useful information for app o ramas than anecdotes by bloggers about extremely high valuations.

dukerau

Ok, I'll post a few.

CLT-LHR US Airways business
AA 50,000 + $2.50
Cash Price $2,200
Subjective Price (most I'd pay for same flight) $1,000
Hassle factor $0 I enjoy this, but it was an easy booking on aa.com
AA Value Objective $2200 - $2.50 /50000AA = $0.044 per AA
AA Value Subjective $1000 -$ 2.50/50000AA = $0.02 per AA

CLT-GPT round trip US Airways economy
BA 9,000 + $5
Cash price: $300
Subjective price: $300
Hassle factor: $0
BA Value: $0.0328 per BA Avio

Just to bring hotels into the mix:
Sheraton Laguardia East 1 night (middle Saturday night of US Open)
SPG 10K
Cash price: $400
Subjective price: $330 (other hotels in the area for $300/nt plus Sheraton offered a round trip shuttle to the Open which no others did. $15 can fare each way included in valuation)
Hassle factor: $0
SPG Value Objective: $0.04
SPG Subjective Value: $0.033 per SPG
Just to note, I am not an SPG loyalist and I would book any hotel in the area for good enough savings. Big events often bring out the best value from hotel points. I just booked my parents into a hotel for a concert that has all hotels in the area nearly sold out and those that aren't at sky high prices. It was Sheraton again, and 10K points for a hotel asking $375/nt.

rufflesinc

Nailed it. When you buy a ticket, you should be using the pre-tax cost, not after tax cost. Some of us get our miles from credit cards and use them on intl F so all elite status would mean is getting our first choice of meal should we be so unwise to use it on UA.

dagaetch

WAS-BKK, AA/CX First (DCA-ORD-HKG-BKK) [One Way]
AA miles: 60,750 + $6 (with Citi AA card, I got 10% miles back)
Cash Price: $12,000 ($5k option available on different airline)
Subj. Price: $1,500 maybe? [coach tix is ~$1000]
Hassle: $100 (I kind of enjoyed the searching, and my booking experience was incredibly easy)
AA Obj: $12000-$106/60750 = $0.20 per AA
AA Sub: $1500-$105/60750 = $0.023 per AA

Flight routing is 9,455 miles. I have no elite status and don't fly enough for it to be worth anything. If purchased with CSP, coach flight would have given me 2k points.

rufflesinc

What was the other routing?

dagaetch

Asiana, I don't remember the exact route. It wasn't available as an award anyways.

pinniped

MCI-ORD, one-way
BA 4,500 + $5
Best cash price $137 to MDW
Hassle factor $0
WN points forgone - about $13 (give or take)
Savings $119
Value per mile $0.026


Almost tempted to give myself a "negative hassle factor" since ORD was more convenient for this trip to the NW Chicago 'burbs. But AA wanted $240 for a one-way trip, which is beyond asinine. $137 to Chicago is asinine enough.

I was happy to use Avios for this one. Never thought I'd need points/miles of any kind for Chicago, a route that used to commonly be $60-70 each way including taxes.

Maykita

I hope you are kidding.

pinniped

He may have been kidding, but on a lot of my int'l premium cabin awards, I do completely ignore the math. It's usually nonsensical, so I just enjoy the trips.

rufflesinc

Some of us enjoy riding in F